Teens' newest use for smartphones? Writing school papers on them. - The Boston Globe

"Today’s smartphones, after all, are bona fide supercomputers capable of everything from capturing high-def video to securing dinner reservations. A near lifetime of cellphone use, meanwhile, has left countless teens more proficient at typing on a roughly 2-inch-by-3-inch smartphone screen than a computer keyboard.

And with extracurricular activities gobbling up after-school hours, many students fit in homework where they can, making the cellphone — that portable hunk of super-charged wonder — the instrument upon which many an essay ends up composed.

For students, the appeal is obvious: Why chain yourself to a desk — or laptop, for that matter — when you don’t have to?"